The smoking ghost
One of my first ghostly encounters when I moved to Oklahoma was at a nursing home in Oklahoma City. I have lived in several states growing up since my father suffered for PTSD from Vietnam. That was one of the symptoms of the disorder. I was originally born in California and spent my younger years and teenage years there. In between those years we moved to Indian, Texas, and Oklahoma. After I left my abusive husband at the age of 21, I drove to back to Texas with my new born son to live with my sister and return to college. After finishing my nursing degree, I moved to south Oklahoma with my parents and my child. Not long after my sister fell in love with a man from the Oklahoma City area, and my father being the family man he always was, packed us all up to move up to be near one another. That is how I found myself in Oklahoma. That was in 2000. It's been 18 years and I have made Oklahoma my home. So it came as no surprise that I would start my paranormal career in Oklahoma.
One of my first nursing jobs in Oklahoma was at a nursing home is south Oklahoma City. I worked as a night nurse there and had for several months. I was about 26 years old at the time, and I had been a nurse for about two years when I worked at this facility. I was at the nursing station receiving report from the evening nursing. The nurses stations sat in the very middle of the nursing home. It was the first place you came to when you entered the doors, and from there four halls branched off in all directions. I was standing to the back of the desk, just in front of the door way to the small dinning room. Our facility held about 70 residents at the time, with three regular floors and one lock down memory unit. At the end of each hall was an exit with an alarm on the clear glass doors set to go off if anyone tried to exit through them. In order for the doors to open you had to press on the bar for at least five seconds for it to unlock and then setting off a loud wailing sound. It was storming that night and the evening nursing reported a possible shortage in the wiring because the door alarms kept going off. Just as the nurses were telling me this, one of the doors at the end of the hall starting sounding. To turn off the alarm, you would have to walk down to the door and punch in a key code to reset it. I had walked down and reset the alarm, then walked back to the nurses station to finish report. At the end of report, one of my nurses aides was standing with me at the station when the alarm went off again. My nurse aide and myself starting walking down the hall towards the door again to reset the alarm. We had almost made it to the door when we noticed an elderly lady standing just outside the door, holding on to the door handle.
Her was grey but nicely kept, as if she had just came out of the beauty salon. Her make-up was nicely kept, and her nails were painted. I remember turning to the aide and saying, "Oh my god, how did that patient get outside!" We both hurried to the door but she vanished right before our eyes. We opened the door and looked around the small area. It was a fenced in area with several seats where residents would go out to smoke. The only way out of that area other than the way we had came out was through a fence door that also had an alarm attached. That alarm had not gone off. I gathered my staff and we did a bed to bed check of the entire facility. No residents were missing, they were all accounted for, but we knew what we had seen. We had seen a ghost.
A few months later I returned to pediatric home health for a new company. I was at a clients home being trained by another nurse when we started talking about the paranormal. I told her about my encounter at the nursing home a few months ago. I told her about the well kept lady. I remember how much she had stood out to me that night since you never see a resident in a nursing home looking so well kept. I made eye contact with her that. As a matter of fact, to this day I can still see her in my mind. After I finished telling my story, I looked over at the other nurse and the expression on her face could not even be described. She told me she had worked at that nursing home prior to becoming a nurse. She was a nurse aid at that facility and she knew exactly who I was talking about.
I told her that after I had that experience, I felt like that lady was attached to the room at the end of the hall on the right hand side. She confirmed that the room I was referring to was in fact the lady I had seen on that stormy night just a few months ago. She was sure of it since she had seen the lady herself.
She said the lady I was referring to was in fact a very well kept person. She never left her room with out her make up on. She would get her hair done weekly at the beauty shop and was always painting her nails. Unlike most residents, she was happy there and she would often sneak out that back door to smoke then set off the alarm when she was ready to come back in. She remembers seeing her when she returned to work after she finished nursing school. She went down to her room to check on her and talked to her about a few things, just catching up. She told me after here little talk she returned to the nurses station saying how good it was to the patient. It was then that the other staff stopped what they were doing and looked up here. They informed her that the resident had passed away three months ago. So it seems now three of us had seen the same ghost and she chose to stay in the place that we was happy. Evidently, she still enjoys a good cigarette, especially on a dark, stormy night.
One of my first nursing jobs in Oklahoma was at a nursing home is south Oklahoma City. I worked as a night nurse there and had for several months. I was about 26 years old at the time, and I had been a nurse for about two years when I worked at this facility. I was at the nursing station receiving report from the evening nursing. The nurses stations sat in the very middle of the nursing home. It was the first place you came to when you entered the doors, and from there four halls branched off in all directions. I was standing to the back of the desk, just in front of the door way to the small dinning room. Our facility held about 70 residents at the time, with three regular floors and one lock down memory unit. At the end of each hall was an exit with an alarm on the clear glass doors set to go off if anyone tried to exit through them. In order for the doors to open you had to press on the bar for at least five seconds for it to unlock and then setting off a loud wailing sound. It was storming that night and the evening nursing reported a possible shortage in the wiring because the door alarms kept going off. Just as the nurses were telling me this, one of the doors at the end of the hall starting sounding. To turn off the alarm, you would have to walk down to the door and punch in a key code to reset it. I had walked down and reset the alarm, then walked back to the nurses station to finish report. At the end of report, one of my nurses aides was standing with me at the station when the alarm went off again. My nurse aide and myself starting walking down the hall towards the door again to reset the alarm. We had almost made it to the door when we noticed an elderly lady standing just outside the door, holding on to the door handle.
Her was grey but nicely kept, as if she had just came out of the beauty salon. Her make-up was nicely kept, and her nails were painted. I remember turning to the aide and saying, "Oh my god, how did that patient get outside!" We both hurried to the door but she vanished right before our eyes. We opened the door and looked around the small area. It was a fenced in area with several seats where residents would go out to smoke. The only way out of that area other than the way we had came out was through a fence door that also had an alarm attached. That alarm had not gone off. I gathered my staff and we did a bed to bed check of the entire facility. No residents were missing, they were all accounted for, but we knew what we had seen. We had seen a ghost.
A few months later I returned to pediatric home health for a new company. I was at a clients home being trained by another nurse when we started talking about the paranormal. I told her about my encounter at the nursing home a few months ago. I told her about the well kept lady. I remember how much she had stood out to me that night since you never see a resident in a nursing home looking so well kept. I made eye contact with her that. As a matter of fact, to this day I can still see her in my mind. After I finished telling my story, I looked over at the other nurse and the expression on her face could not even be described. She told me she had worked at that nursing home prior to becoming a nurse. She was a nurse aid at that facility and she knew exactly who I was talking about.
I told her that after I had that experience, I felt like that lady was attached to the room at the end of the hall on the right hand side. She confirmed that the room I was referring to was in fact the lady I had seen on that stormy night just a few months ago. She was sure of it since she had seen the lady herself.
She said the lady I was referring to was in fact a very well kept person. She never left her room with out her make up on. She would get her hair done weekly at the beauty shop and was always painting her nails. Unlike most residents, she was happy there and she would often sneak out that back door to smoke then set off the alarm when she was ready to come back in. She remembers seeing her when she returned to work after she finished nursing school. She went down to her room to check on her and talked to her about a few things, just catching up. She told me after here little talk she returned to the nurses station saying how good it was to the patient. It was then that the other staff stopped what they were doing and looked up here. They informed her that the resident had passed away three months ago. So it seems now three of us had seen the same ghost and she chose to stay in the place that we was happy. Evidently, she still enjoys a good cigarette, especially on a dark, stormy night.
Comments
Post a Comment